Inner Dharma

Inner Dharma was a writing project concerned with classical and traditional martial arts and culture. I want to thank all those who provided feedback and encouragement over the last twenty years. I have two books that stemmed from this project and am working on a separate study of Shugendō and classical martial traditions.

Moon Mountain Hall

Moon Mountain Hall (月山館; Yuèshān-guan, alt. Gassankan) is the name of my martial arts practice.

Internal Martial Arts

I am a lineal practitioner of Chinese internal martial arts. This includes:

  • The Wú (吳) Tàijíquán of Yáng Yǔtíng (楊禹廷; 1887-1982)
  • The circular Bāguàzhǎng of Yǐn Fú (尹福; 1840-1909) and Mǎ Guì (馬貴; 1851-1941)
  • The linear bagua of Liú Dékuān (劉德寛; 1826-1911)
  • The Héběi style Xíngyìquán of Hán Mùxiá (韓慕俠; 1877-1947)
  • Bāguà, Xíngyì and Tàijí methods of sword, saber and spear
  • Shi-style Báiyuán Tōngbèiquán (白猿通背拳) methods of jīběngōng (基本功)

I became the 40th student of Zhang Yun in Princeton, NJ, in 2015. Zhang Yun leads Yin Cheng Gong Fa (尹 成 功 法; abbreviated YCGF) North America, continuing the lineage of Wang Peisheng (Yin Cheng). YCGF Pittsburgh maintains a very nice list of forms — my continued practice is centered around portions of the curriculum listed there and an ongoing study of written classics.

Heihō Kenjutsu

I have trained in several surviving classical Japanese martial traditions, most important of which has been the Kashima-shinden Jiki Shinkage-ryū taught by Dr. David Hall at the Hōbyōkan. My continued research on that art can be found at jikishinkageryu.org, along with pointers to active training groups in North America, Europe, and Japan.

Mark Raugas
Seattle, WA

饒静思